Are Manual Workflows Costing Your Enterprise?

Manual processes are tedious, laborious, and frustrating—however, many enterprises still rely on them. No-code can help.

A manual process is any workflow dependent upon one person passing information to another person, or copying and pasting data between internal and external systems. Manual processes are often called “swivel chair integrations” as they require you to repeatedly log in and out of many disparate tools just to complete simple tasks. Any process-related communication typically takes place externally via email or instant message, and the only way to get a status update is to contact someone directly. 

It’s clear manual processes are inefficient and time-consuming, not to mention out of touch with how modern enterprises operate. Still, more organizations rely on manual processes than you might think. According to a Kofax Software survey, 34% of financial institutions still use manual paper-based processes for day-to-day operations. In the insurance sector, manual processes are the number one efficiency challenge for CFOs. If your enterprise is still using manual processes, there’s so much more at stake than simply being behind the curve.

3 ways manual processes are hurting your business

Manual processes aren’t small inefficiencies teams can work around with a little maneuvering. The costs are very real! Here are three key ways manual processes prevent you from reaching your full potential.

1. Productivity losses

Manual processes can wreak havoc on your team’s productivity. When you rely on manual processes to perform simple, repetitive tasks—like populating multiple forms with a customer’s name and email address—the productivity losses stack up. Before you know it, 22% of your team’s time is spent on repetitive tasks. 

Plus, the simple act of switching between different tools again and again can decrease productivity by 40%.

Gartner found that, on average, it takes an employee 18 minutes to find a document manually. Then, they spend an additional 50% of their working time searching for the information they need within that document. Plus, the simple act of switching between different tools again and again can decrease productivity by 40%.

2. Data entry errors

In order for manual processes to work, every single person in the pipeline must be correct in every aspect of their work at all times. Unfortunately, that simply isn’t possible—nobody’s perfect, especially when it comes to manually entering data day in and day out. The human error statistics related to manual processes are actually pretty shocking:

• A person will make at least 10 mistakes per 100 steps in a manual process, even if it’s redundant work they’ve done multiple times 

• Even when manually entering information into the most straightforward of spreadsheets, the probability of human error sits between 18% and 40%

• Common verification methods like visual checking result in 2958% more errors than double entry

If you’re in a highly-regulated industry like finance, insurance, or government, data entry errors can be significant and costly. From financial losses to legal fines to reputational damage, one small mistake can have a lasting negative impact.

3. Poor customer experiences

You might think inefficient manual processes are only an internal issue, but their effects can and do ripple out to impact your users. According to Accenture, 73% of today’s customers expect service to be easy and convenient, and 61% want it to be faster. If your manual processes require customers to constantly provide the same basic information across their journey, you’re not meeting either one of these expectations. The same study by Accenture found that 52% of customers switched providers due to poor customer experiences alone, and the estimated cost of these losses was $1.6 trillion.

Given these negative business outcomes, why haven’t more enterprises done away with their manual processes? If they’re working with applications built using traditional development methods, the answer always comes down to technology. It’s difficult to integrate a code-based application with legacy systems, especially if the application is modern. APIs go a long way toward automating and streamlining manual processes, but some external data sources—such as websites and portals—don’t have APIs for application connection. 

On top of these roadblocks, tech teams are simply too overloaded with legacy maintenance and project backlogs to make phasing out manual processes a priority. With a no-code platform, you can eliminate these pain points and do away with the manual processes that keep your business from thriving. 

Unqork process bottlenecks with no-code

To boost efficiency and eliminate process bottlenecks, you have to start at the source—technology! The Unqork platform is packed with robust dev tools and features designed to help you optimize your enterprise’s workflows. Our cloud-native, API-based integration templates let you quickly and efficiently execute workflows, which enables you to easily scale process automation and business orchestration best practices.

Watch our webinar “From Manual to Digital: Transform Operational Complexity into Business Results” to learn more. 

Unqork leverages enterprise-grade automation that supports security, flexibility, and easy management through customizable workflows. Designer role-based access control allows you to define granular access to configuration, production, and administration capabilities. This way, there’s no confusion about who is responsible for certain tasks. 

Unqork’s no-code platform also uses easy-to-apply business logic, which increases your enterprise’s technical capacity. In turn, this makes it easier to automate the repetitive tasks that would otherwise require a manual process. All these features (and more!) help you expedite operations, reduce opportunities for human error, and cut all the costs of manual processes. Don’t let manual workflows hold you back! Bring no-code into your enterprise with Unqork.

Schedule a personalized demonstration of Unqork today with one of our in-house experts. Also, make sure to subscribe to the Unqork newsletter for more no-code developments.